Investigations on contact pressure in sheet metal forming of advanced high-strength steels

Abstract

Increased demands for safety and environment concerns have led to a greater use of advanced high strength in the automobile industry. The consequent challenges to sheet metal forming processes include higher contact pressures between dies and blanks with resulting consequences in increased wear and failures. In this article a numerical model is applied to analyze contact pressure along the tool die radius, where wear is particularly severe. Several sheet metal materials are numerically investigated, in order to quantify the pressure distribution along the radii which in turn has important effects on tool wear. The results show that different materials, its strength and behavior affect not only the contact pressure, but also the contact distribution at different zones of analysis.